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Founded by Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the Web, the World Wide Web Foundation empowers people to bring about positive change.Tue, 18 Dec 2018 13:41:00 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.9https://webfoundation.org/docs/2017/09/favicon-icon-75x75.pngWorld Wide Web Foundationhttps://webfoundation.org
3232Access is more than cost: Measuring the quality of mobile broadband servicehttps://webfoundation.org/2018/12/access-is-more-than-cost-measuring-the-quality-of-mobile-broadband-service/
https://webfoundation.org/2018/12/access-is-more-than-cost-measuring-the-quality-of-mobile-broadband-service/#respondTue, 18 Dec 2018 13:41:00 +0000http://webfoundation.org/?p=14067This post was originally published on a4ai.org.

The latest report from the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) examines the policy dynamics that define the quality of mobile broadband service experienced by users across low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Taking …

The latest report from the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) examines the policy dynamics that define the quality of mobile broadband service experienced by users across low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Taking a step beyond our core research around affordable access and the cost of connectivity, this brief report informs ongoing efforts to translate internet access into meaningful access for everyone.

The research finds that significant disparities exist between the speeds found in the Global North and the Global South. For example, the median download speed for a user in Africa is less than a seventh of that for a user in Western Europe. The data capacity of a user’s connection has a consequential impact on their ability to meaningfully use the web to benefit their lives, including across education, health, finance, employment, and governance. As a result, this disparity creates an additional digital divide in terms of the quality of service users in these regions are able to access.

Median Download and Upload Speeds (Mbps), by region – 2017

The report features case studies from Bangladesh, Colombia, Mozambique, and Peru, which each reaffirm the need for a positive and collaborative relationship, built on trust and cooperation, to support the industry innovation and policy change needed to improve quality of service.

This report encourages the various actors in the telecommunications sector — policymakers, regulators, operators, and users — to align their interests cooperatively around improving the quality of service, including to ensure:

Political independence and budget autonomy for regulators to make fair and respected decisions to support market competition.

Open and collaborative consultations with all actors as part of the regulatory process.

Mobile number portability for users to genuinely take advantage of market competition.

Open and widespread infrastructure sharing arrangements to limit coverage monopolisation.

This research report is just the beginning of a new strand of research for A4AI. In looking forward, we hope to build on this report’s findings to support better practices around improving quality of service for all mobile broadband users and to give better detail of what kind of experience does a user really have when they purchase 1GB of affordable data.

At this year’s International Open Data Conferencein Buenos Aires, we held a sessionon how open data and AI can be used (or misused) and how this use can impact digital opportunities and digital equality. We also discussed what the key players (including unusual suspects) can do to mitigate potential harms and to implement data ethics and responsible data policies. This is a summary of the challenges, opportunities, and recommendations discussed.

Some participants questioned why we were introducing AI into a conference on open data. Some thought it was a case of connecting two popular buzzwords together, given that challenges around infrastructure, access to technology, and skills means that a merger between the two fields looks far off. However, as the development of AI technologies continues rapidly, many others agreed that it's critical we urgently develop strong frameworks of data ethics.

The Opportunities

Save humans from undesirable tasks: Humans often haveto carry outtasks that are dangerous, dull and/or dirty, because they are necessary for the functioning of our current societies. Many of these tasks could be offloaded onto intelligent systems. Yet we must do so based on human values, and start designing legal frameworks that ensure this is done to increase the quality of life for workers who currently carry out these tasks, and not merely a mechanism to reduce the costs of labour.

Help humans make better-informed decisions: Humans have limited cognitive capacity and often rely on small samples of data acquired through personal experience. AI can help generate value by processing more data and thus providing a bigger frame to decision-makers. For example, by identifying and reporting on (otherwise impossible to identify) patterns, early warning prediction systems can help develop the field of preventive healthcare. Earlier prediction, prevention and/or treatment of disease would help reduce harm and costs associated with medical care.

The Challenges

Although we recognised the potential for good that AI systems hold, they can also exacerbate inequalities. Will the deployment of AI replicate existing North/South power dynamics? This is related to the question of data and tech, and the dependency on capacity and resources from North America and Europe.

Causes and consequences

More efficient and automated systems will likely reinforce economic trends that are pushing wealth further to the top, exacerbating wealth inequality. The problem is compounded when considering the extent of the digital divide on a global scale and that AI systems are typically built by affluent men in Silicon Valley. With an overly narrow cultural context and lack of nuance, systems inevitably end up with built-in biases. One of many examples is that darker skinned people are not being recognised by some facial-recognition tech as researched by the Algorithmic Justice League.

Overall, we identified the challenges at the intersection of data ethics and AI could be organized in the following way:

Systems that fail because they are bad quality (they fail always and everywhere).

Systems that fail because they don't understand the context because they have been:

Trained on biased datasets, or,

Designed by a team of people that is not diverse and failed to account for relevant information, including their own implicit biases.

Systems that are designed to pursue a narrow set of values, such as efficiency, and lead to bad social outcomes, such as a further concentration of wealth (E.g. Automating Inequality).

Systems that even if they achieve reasonable results in some contexts, generate bad social outcomes when implemented in contexts lacking appropriate legal frameworks and institutions to account for their disruption (e.g. changes in the types of skills needed to get access to a job).

Context of imperialist power dynamics fuel the problem

Moreover, there were concerns with what is perceived as part of a broader trend in which new technologies are ‘dumped’ into contexts outside of the ones in which they were developed. This speaks closely to digital sovereignty, where data harvested in one country is hosted, processed and acted upon in a second country — leaving millions of people subject to the whims of companies that are not accountable to them or the institutions designed to protect their rights. This scenario, strengthened the concern of many participants regarding how AI might exacerbate inter-regional inequalities as well as global inequalities.

The Recommendations

The group came up with a set of recommendations towards ensuring rights are complied with and risks are minimized.

Governments must:

Develop mechanisms to enable people to challenge automated decisions that have a considerable effect on their lives (e.g. credit decisions).

Create mechanisms for public tender processes aimed at acquiring or implementing AI systems to assess risks and risk mitigation strategies.

Companies must:

Stop offering ‘black box’ systems in high stakes sectors, such access to public services, and work to build systems that enable public oversight.

Work towards establishing minimum standards of diversity in the teams designing AI systems, as a way to account for implicit bias.

Ensure that there are ways for individuals to tinker with consumer-facing algorithms, such as those managing content curation, distribution and discovery functions.

Increase the number and quality of publicly available training datasets to ensure a more level playing field for startups, and to facilitate public scrutiny over these training sets, which can help minimize the risk of bias.

Ensure humane working conditions, and training to facilitate upskilling and higher wages for employees and contractors based outside the country where company HQ is based.

Both governments and companies need to:

Work to resolve entrenched gender, racial and other biases that might affect datasets, and enact policies to address underlying power dynamics that created these biases.

Provide ethics training for data practitioners.

For example, much like medical practitioners take a Hippocratic oath, data scientists could pledge to follow a code of conduct that helps guide their actions, and signal red lines to employers and potential clients seeking their services.

And last but not least, collaborative frameworks for discussions are needed

Multi-stakeholder councils are needed to bring together developers, government officials and civil society to discuss contentious points and find solutions. These should be set up in such a way that acknowledges that Global South citizens deserve to have a stake not only in the use but also in the production of AI.

The chart above compares low- and middle-income countries on the affordability of data and on their score on the infrastructure sub-index of the latest edition of the ADI (Affordability Drivers Index). The trendlines – and their differences – offer some insights towards affordable data:

Landlocked countries face the greatest disadvantages in making data affordable, but it’s possible.

Most noticeable on the comparison between countries of different geographies is the inflated barrier for landlocked countries, measured by the red trendline. Even when at comparable or better scores for infrastructure, landlocked countries tend to have higher data costs. Of the landlocked countries in the Affordability Report, only one meets the ‘1 for 2’ affordability target: Kazakhstan. On the other hand, many landlocked countries – Mali and Zimbabwe, for example – have some of the least affordable costs. On top of these challenges to affordable data, landlocked countries tend to have some of the lowest average incomes of any country type, making the real cost to connect for people living there even higher.

The eight island and archipelago countries in the Affordability Report average surface areas less than half of continental countries (whether coastal or landlocked) and double the average population density. As a result, this isolates many of the connectivity costs in the high-capacity submarine cables that connect these islands, as detailed in this year’s Affordability Report. In turn, archipelago countries have a higher median price for 1GB of mobile broadband (US$7.25 in December 2017) than island ($5.53), coastal ($6.51), or landlocked countries ($7.16). Many of these countries, however, also benefit from having higher average incomes, balancing the end cost to users as a percentage of their expenses. All but one of these eight countries, Haiti, have data costs under 2% of monthly average income. While archipelago nations often benefit from smaller surface area, the need to connect numerous islands and populations increases the cost to connect.

Geography has a measurable impact on the relationship between network infrastructure and affordable data. While some countries may face challenges or disadvantages from the get-go, locally tailored policies can help make affordable access a reality for any geographic context. Policymakers can and should mix different strategies, such as infrastructure and cost sharing, to maximise investment impact in bringing the largest number of people online.

To receive a weekly news brief on the most important stories in tech, subscribe to The Web This Week.

]]>https://webfoundation.org/2018/12/how-different-countries-build-for-affordable-access/feed/0Statement: reaching the 50/50 momenthttps://webfoundation.org/2018/12/statement-reaching-the-50-50-moment/
https://webfoundation.org/2018/12/statement-reaching-the-50-50-moment/#respondFri, 07 Dec 2018 16:18:34 +0000http://webfoundation.org/?p=14048The International Telecoms Union (ITU) has published its 2018 global and regional ICT estimates, showing that for the first time, more than half of the world’s population is using the internet. The ITU estimates that by the end of 2018, …]]>The International Telecoms Union (ITU) has published its 2018 global and regional ICT estimates, showing that for the first time, more than half of the world’s population is using the internet. The ITU estimates that by the end of 2018, 51.2 per cent, or 3.9 billion people, will be using the Internet. The puts the 50/50 moment ahead of previous May 2019 predictions.

Adrian Lovett, Web Foundation President & CEO said:

“Today the UN International Telecoms Union released revised figures showing that more than half the world will be online by end of this year. Because of the World Wide Web, billions of us are connecting and collaborating online to make our lives better. But the rate of new people connecting is still slowing and now more than ever we need everyone — governments, companies and citizens — to work together to get everyone connected to a web worth having.

“That’s why the Web Foundation, together with 170 organisations, has launched a new Contract for the Web to build the web we want. We need to put this cause at the top of the global agenda, and we welcome organisations and citizens to join us in this effort.”

At the 5th International Open Data Conferencein Buenos Aires, we held a sessionto share research findings, lessons learned, and challenges on access and use of open data — to determine how it can be improved to better support women across the globe.

Challenges

Literacy and patriarchy

We discussed many challenges. Literacy issues, both technical and written, are endemic and play a major role in disconnecting women, especially rural women. Cultural challenges in some contexts significantly affect women’s ability to access and use open data. For example, in more patriarchal societies, not only are women deprived of access to tools such as mobile phones and data subscriptions, they also lack the power to meaningfully act on the data they can access — for community-decision making and to engage in political processes. For example, in the Mekong (and across Asia like the rest of the world), women don't often hold senior (enough) positions and find themselves reaching their glass ceiling early in their careers, therefore are never in an ultimate position of power to enact change.

There is also a lack of existing data about femicides, LGBTQ+phobia, and other issues that impact women and other marginalised communities. The lack of access to critical information like this weakens the criminal justice system, which isn't generating structured data that can help policymakers tackle the underlying issues

Open data initiatives need to be mindful not to reinforce existing gender inequalities in labour markets when designing programs. For example, programs that advocate for budget transparency using open data might get input from women in traditional sectors of care — health, education, sanitation, environment — but not so much in areas where men are traditionally dominant such as policy-making, leadership, peace and order, budgeting. This creates a danger that even when women are engaging with data, traditional stereotypes are replicated online.

Systemic data issues, the lack of and diversity of data available

Gender tends to not be a focus when dealing with systemic racism. We are missing the intersectionality of data. For example, populating data deserts and implementing responsible data policies for certain demographics (e.g. indigenous teen women).

In addition, disaggregated data is typically asked for by people outside of government. Given this, there is a need to address social disbalance in our communities. There is a tendency for the open data space to be siloed, which makes it difficult to get consensus and movement on complex issues.

In the open data community, there are also challenges with the Open Data Charter Refresh process. For some, Open by Default is oppressive because it can jeopardize consent. Its definition is also not universal with no consensus. In addition, ‘publish with purpose’ puts a focus on intentionality, yet it can also mean that we leave out a lot more for reasons that are not explicit or accessible.

Policy recommendations

Although the challenges are many, we recommend many more ways that can make open data work for women in the future.

Adopt a ‘good by default’ policy, publish regardless of usage to let users ask more questions, including on gender.

For example, land ownership data can be used more effectively when supported by an institutional, gender-responsive program.

Stronger collaboration efforts between policymakers and media in pursuit of fact-based discussions for the benefit of citizen engagement towards regaining trust, especially in governments.

Design technologies and applications that break down literacy barriers.

Applications that are considered low tech and require no reading skills (e.g. image-based such as visual apps with cartoons).

Use social networks in a responsible and effective way to spread our agenda.

Build a campaign for public awareness.

Once women are made aware of the benefits of engaging with data, there is a strong incentive for them to engage in the process. Meaningful capacity building activities are then of paramount importance. Once women have pierced the veil, it becomes easier for them to act upon opportunities to engage with government, advocating for better allocation of resources, more gender-responsive policymaking, recognition of women’s voices and issues.

Thank you to Carlos Iglesias @carlosiglesias for the Spanish translation. And for all the participants who made this session great.

I spent the first three months of my life without a name. Nobody wanted to give me one because I was a girl. Today I have my name as a web address. The web has given me a name. It has also given me a way to learn and a living. That’s why I introduce myself as ‘Nnenna from the internet’.

That’s my web story. What’s yours?

As part of our #ForTheWeb campaign, we’re asking people to share their web stories. So, how do you use the web? How has it changed your life? What is your hope for its future?

We want to hear about the good and the bad, in many languages, and from as many people as possible. You can share your story on social media using the hashtag #ForTheWeb. Or, if you don’t use social media, you can leave your story as a comment below, or email to press@webfoundation.org.

On the web’s 30th birthday in March 2019, we’ll be releasing a film that tells a wider story about how central the web is to our daily lives and why it’s worth fighting for.

Tell us your story today to help us write ours. Why are you #ForTheWeb?

To receive a weekly news brief on the most important stories in tech, subscribe to The Web This Week.

]]>https://webfoundation.org/2018/11/whats-your-web-story/feed/0Celebrating 5 years of A4AIhttps://webfoundation.org/2018/11/celebrating-5-years-of-a4ai/
https://webfoundation.org/2018/11/celebrating-5-years-of-a4ai/#respondMon, 19 Nov 2018 15:56:19 +0000http://webfoundation.org/?p=13996This post was first published by the Alliance for Affordable Internet at A4AI.org

On October 7, 2018, A4AI celebrated its fifth anniversary. We’ve come a long way from our 2013 launch in Lagos as a coalition of 30 organisations. We …

]]>This post was first published by the Alliance for Affordable Internet at A4AI.org

On October 7, 2018, A4AI celebrated its fifth anniversary. We’ve come a long way from our 2013 launch in Lagos as a coalition of 30 organisations. We now stand 80+ members strong, we have national coalitions working actively across seven countries to advance affordable internet policy, and we’ve contributed important research to the internet access and affordability space.

We’ve learned a lot and had a ton of fun doing it — but we know our work is really just beginning. We’re proud of the progress we’ve made so far, and we look forward to continuing to work with you all to realise our shared goal of affordable internet for all.

To receive a weekly news brief on the most important stories in tech, subscribe to The Web This Week.

]]>https://webfoundation.org/2018/11/celebrating-5-years-of-a4ai/feed/0Join us and fight #ForTheWebhttps://webfoundation.org/2018/11/join-us-and-fight-fortheweb/
https://webfoundation.org/2018/11/join-us-and-fight-fortheweb/#commentsMon, 05 Nov 2018 18:31:55 +0000http://webfoundation.org/?p=13947The free and open web faces real challenges. More than half the world’s population still can’t get online. For the other half, the web’s benefits come with too many risks: to our privacy, our democracy, our rights. That’s why …]]>The free and open web faces real challenges. More than half the world’s population still can’t get online. For the other half, the web’s benefits come with too many risks: to our privacy, our democracy, our rights. That’s why we’re launching a global campaign to connected everyone to a web that works for people.

Our founder and web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee launched the campaign today at the Web Summit in Lisbon, announcing a new “Contract for the Web”. He shared starter principles for the contract, defining responsibilities that governments, companies and citizens each have to create a better web.

Now we’re calling for people to support these principles and get involved in a process to build them into a full Contract for the Web that will be published in May 2019 — the “50/50 moment” when more than half the world’s population will be online.

Speaking from the Web Summit, Berners-Lee said:

“The web is at a crucial point. More than half the world’s population remains offline, and the rate of new people getting connected is slowing. Those of us who are online are seeing our rights and freedoms threatened. We need a new Contract for the Web, with clear and tough responsibilities for those who have the power to make it better. I hope more people will join us to build the web we want.”

The Contract for the Web launched with high-level backing from over 50 organisations, including the French government, civil society organisations such as Access Now, Internet Sans Frontières, Project Isizwe, NewNow and the Digital Empowerment Foundation, as well as companies including Google, AnchorFree, Facebook and Cloudflare.

The push comes amid a growing awareness of the risks posed by digital technologies. We launched a report, The Case for the Web, as part of our campaign, outlining the urgent action needed to tackle these risks, covering issues including hate speech, data privacy, political manipulation and the centralisation of power online among a small group of companies. The report reveals that more than 1.5 billion people live in countries with no comprehensive law on personal data protection, leaving them particularly vulnerable to increasingly common incidents involving breaches of personal data.

Adrian Lovett, Web Foundation President & CEO said:

“For three decades we’ve seen the tremendous good that the web can deliver. As we work to expand its benefits to everyone, we need to make sure the web serves humanity, not the other way round. This can’t be accomplished by any one company or country alone. It’ll take all of us — debating, negotiating and collaborating to shape a better web.”

The ambition to build a Contract for the Web recognises that the challenges facing the web demand commitments from a range of actors, from the companies building web technologies to the policymakers defining laws and regulations, and the billions of people using the web every day.

To receive a weekly news brief on the most important stories in tech, subscribe to The Web This Week.

]]>https://webfoundation.org/2018/11/join-us-and-fight-fortheweb/feed/4How some African governments are keeping millions of citizens offlinehttps://webfoundation.org/2018/11/how-some-african-governments-are-keeping-millions-of-citizens-offline/
https://webfoundation.org/2018/11/how-some-african-governments-are-keeping-millions-of-citizens-offline/#respondFri, 02 Nov 2018 15:03:25 +0000http://webfoundation.org/?p=13944This blog post was written by Eleanor Sarpong, Deputy Director and Policy Lead at the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) and was first published at a4ai.org.

]]>This blog post was written by Eleanor Sarpong, Deputy Director and Policy Lead at the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) and was first published at a4ai.org.

A4AI’s recent mobile broadband pricing update shows that Africans face the highest cost to connect to the internet — just 1GB of mobile data costs the average user in Africa nearly 9% of their monthly income, while their counterparts in the Asia-Pacific region pay one-fifth of that price (around 1.5% of monthly income). Despite this already high cost to connect, we’re seeing a worrying trend of governments across Africa imposing a variety of taxes on some of the most popular internet applications and services.

In Uganda, the Excise Duty (Amendment) Act 2018 — which took effect this past July despite public opposition — imposes both a daily fee of UGX 200 ($0.05 USD) to access social media sites and many common internet-based messaging and voice applications, as well as a tax on mobile money transactions. With this tax, the cost of 1GB of mobile data jumped to nearly 40% of monthly income for the poorest in that country.

These taxes are short-sighted strategies with long-term consequences. While countries may garner additional tax revenue at the start, these taxes increase the cost to connect for all — particularly for those already struggling to afford a basic connection — and so defer on later economic advantages, further delaying the delivery of digital development opportunities. An analysis of the Ugandan social media tax by Research ICT Solutions showed that it hit rural regions, where average incomes are lower, the hardest. Increasing the cost to connect builds up the barriers to connectivity, and contributes to a growing digital divide. A4AI calls on countries looking to accelerate economic growth and build a resilient, inclusive economy to avoid this tax pay-off, and to reach for deeper digital dividends in the future. To do so, they would do well to focus on urgent policy actions to stimulate growth and investment that benefits all citizens, including:

Developing strategies to encourage innovative and prudent uses of spectrum.

Africa, with the largest digital divide of any geographic region, has the greatest untapped potential with regards to improving affordable access and meaningful use of the internet. With affordable internet access, African economies can grow sustainably and inclusively.

To receive a weekly news brief on the most important stories in tech, subscribe to The Web This Week.

]]>https://webfoundation.org/2018/11/how-some-african-governments-are-keeping-millions-of-citizens-offline/feed/0Former Rwandan ICT Minister Named as New A4AI Honorary Chairhttps://webfoundation.org/2018/10/13934/
https://webfoundation.org/2018/10/13934/#respondTue, 30 Oct 2018 15:02:04 +0000http://webfoundation.org/?p=13934The Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) has announced that Jean Philbert Nsengimana, the former Minister of ICT and Youth in Rwanda and current Special Advisor at SMART Africa, will join A4AI as its Honorary Chairperson.

Mr. Nsengimana has 15 …

]]>The Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) has announced that Jean Philbert Nsengimana, the former Minister of ICT and Youth in Rwanda and current Special Advisor at SMART Africa, will join A4AI as its Honorary Chairperson.

Mr. Nsengimana has 15 years of experience in the private sector, international development and academia. A respected policy leader in Africa and beyond, he is involved in a number of high-level initiatives working toward universal access, including the World Economic Forum’s Internet for All initiative. In his capacity of Minister of ICT and Youth in Rwanda, Mr. Nsengimana championed several flagship initiatives including Transform Africa and YouthConnekt Africa.

He led the design and implementation of Rwanda’s ICT priorities through theSMART Rwanda Master Plan, which, among other issues, focuses on broadband for all and digital literacy. The plan is credited with enabling Africa’s largest national 4G LTE network rollout, which now covers 95% of the Rwandan population, and the world’s first commercial use of drones for delivering live-saving medical supplies.

Mr. Nsengimana joins A4AI at a time when their work to advance affordable access is becoming ever more urgent. Growth in internet access and use is slowing dramatically, and A4AI’s latestAffordability Report shows that over 2 billion people do not have access to affordable internet. As the global digital divide deepens and entrenches offline patterns of inequality, policy to advance affordable access is now more important than ever.

Remarking on his new role, Mr. Nsengimana said:

“Internet affordability is one of the most significant — but solvable —barriers to achieving access for all. This deep conviction has driven my work over the last 15 years, and I am excited to continue and amplify this work as the Honorary Chairperson of the Alliance for Affordable Internet. Over the years that I have worked in ICT, I have witnessed the power of internet to grow economies and empower communities — and the vital need for affordable internet access globally. I look forward to working with the A4AI team and its partners to make this a reality.”

A4AI Executive Director Sonia Jorge added:

“We are honored to have the opportunity to work with Jean Philbert in this capacity, and to benefit from his extensive experience, strategic advice and leadership as we move A4AI to the next phase of our work to advance affordable internet for everyone.“

Mr. Nsengimana replaces Dr Omobola Johnson, Nigeria’s former Minister of Communication Technology, who served as A4AI Honorary Chair from 2014 until 2018, and who will continue to support A4AI as she joins theWeb Foundation Board of Directors.